Critical Acclaim: Luigi Boccherini Seven Symphonies

The fairly subtle virtues of Cantilena make quite a different thing of Boccherini symphonies than did flamboyant Raymond Leppard and most of the Philharmonic Orchestra in the last issue covering this music In comparable scope. That Philips set was hard-bitten and brilliant, and dealt with the works of one opus number only. Only two are duplicated in this laudable Chandos set, op. 12, nos. 3 and 4. These decorative works needn't provoke comparisons with Haydn, whose dramatic instincts dictated the subsequent direction of the whole genre, even unto this day.

What does strike one is how comfortably idiomatic Boccherini's string writing is, how unforced is his melodic invention and the means by which he chooses to embroider upon it (for development is not in the line of this work). The short Symphony in D, G. 490, is really just an Overture in Italian style; all the others are full-sized classical symphonies in three or four movements. They are all attractive and graceful pieces, more so than Leppard's pushy approach once led us to think possible.

Although Cantilena's string body is small even by the stan­dards of other well-known British chamber groups, there is no scrawniness or bloodlessness in its sound. Conductor Adrian Shepherd elicits striklngly sweet-toned playing and plenty of backbone, too. The Scottish National Or­chestra Centre in Glasgow, site of of recording, has less than the than churchly resonance beloved of Ill Couzenses for chamber music, a natural and entirely apt acoustic.

For most people, this may well be enough orchestral Boccherini for a lifetime; one can hardly imagine a more effective or deftly accomplished selection. Strongly recommended.

Review of Luigi Boccherini Seven Symphonies